Whenever I try to take a taxi via flagging them down (not via the apps), my address is not in their GPS system. I say “Myku no Mydistrict 1-2-3,” they type in Myku, Mydistrict, 1, 2, and then the screen shows that 3 is not selectable.
This also occurred once when I got a ride with a friend who owns a car with a built-in GPS.
I usually tell them to pick 1-2-4 and then walk a bit, but this just seems strange. Is there any way to get this fixed? Any company to contact, for example? I imagine it’d be a pain, but I’m curious how much of a pain, and if anyone even knows the procedure.
21 comments
I can’t help you, but know that it’s fairly common. I have to drive to my students’ homes for visitations every few years, and I always have a handful that don’t show up on Google Maps. It sucks calling to ask for directions.
That’s an issue with the GPS data the maps are using. You should just give them a destination that gets you as close as possible.
Get close and than explain the last bit?
If you go to myku mydistrict 1-2-anywhere, then myku mydistrict 1-2-yourplace will be a couple meters away at most.
Do that until you can explain how to go to your place directly.
So, basically what you’re doing… There are many places like that.
I had a similar problem with my old apartment. There was a small river with only a footbridge directly in front of my house. Driving directly to my address involved a 5-minute detour to cross the river by car so I always directed the taxi to an address on the other side of the river (which is also a city border) and walked the 30 seconds across the bridge.
I don’t know how to “fix” your problem but just telling them the 1-2-4 address for the GPS and then verbally directing them to your house as you get close is probably the only workaround for you.
Extremely common. I have to put notes in online orders and when I order pizzas with step by step directions or else I never get my deliveries.
Find a business near by, big chain store that’s been there a while, and get its telephone number. They can search by that and you can tell/show them the actual address after the fact.
If the street you live on is a dead end street, it may not be on any automatically or machine generated maps. (The street we live on is one such, and any time one tries inputting an address from our street into Google Maps or Apple Maps one’s given a position, but the position is actually a few turns away; our house is not even visible from the spot the mapping applications give.)
Another possibility (which, again, obtains in our case) is that the address at which you live was assigned to a different property: in our case, the address was set up some time in the early Showa era when the area was farmland. Since then, 13 buildings have been built on parcels parceled from the land, and now every building has the same address.
A final possibility is—I don’t know if this would actually have an effect or not—that someone near your building requested his or her house be removed from services like Google Maps and Apple Maps. Several places in our neighborhood are like this: the house position in any photographs is just a gray blur.
Find the closest address that does show up on the GPS system and just use that obviously.
Ask to be taken to the konbini or koban nearest to your home, and walk the remaining two minutes.
Put a dropped pin on your apartment and google maps will make a “map code” the taxi driver can enter this map code number into their Navi.
Name a nearby conbini that they do have and then walk 15 seconds?
My house was built 5 years ago. Some navi systems still haven’t updated. I just give them the 1-11 and guide them in once we get close.
Well, yes, give them the nearest landmark or known location, then if you don’t want to walk, direct them the rest of the way. Warn them that you will give instructions. Be ready with instructions well ahead of time so they can get in the right lane etc. Even if your Japanese is basic, you probably only need to say “Next left, second right”.
But is there a reason that the above is not feasible for you?
I’m the same. I can give them the address up to, say 1234-, but their device won’t allow the number after that. I just end up giving them directions from there and sympathizing that the Uber delivery drivers also often get lost. When my friend came to visit I gave here a message to show the driver that explained which house to go to.
We’ve actually had to put a big sign outside the house with our number on it so we can still get deliveries!
The 号 info (i.e the 3rd set of numbers) on addresses often get updated, changed, added, etc. so it’s very common for many census data not to have them. The system is a mess. My place is on 54号 but there are about 7 houses, plus 2 flats and because it’s an old neighborhood, about 6 of them all have the same last name.
Nearest landmark.
Is there any building of interest close to your house?
I used to say “towards primary school such and such”, which was 50 meters from my place, and then ask them to stop a bit earlier.
Most taxi drivers in that area new the school so they didn’t need to enter anything in their navigation system.
So if there is a school, post office, fire station, police box, park, office of well know company, etc. close by your house, I recommend just saying that.
I had this issue with my last apartment. Uber eats and dominos could never find my place for delivery. Even if it could “find” my apartment, it would send them to a spot on the road on the opposite side of an apartment **next** to my apartment.
I had difficulty registering my address at city hall too, as they spent a long time trying to find it properly. NTT also made me print a Google map and circle my apartment on the map, then fax it to them because they had no idea where it was.
My apartment was the top floor of a house, my landlady lived on the bottom, and all the apartments/buildings surrounding were owned by her family, so I have a feeling there was some mix up when plots were divided up and registered as rental properties.
The only way I fixed it was by moving. Good luck.
I usually just either tell them a well known landmark like the nearby conbini or park or whatever, and then either get out there or explain the last bit verbally
Thanks for all the replies everyone! As expected, lots of snark from /r/japanlife, the most welcoming community on Reddit. But I appreciate everyone who took the time to reassure me this situation is common enough.
Sadly nobody has any ideas on what the channels are to get this fixed, it looks like.
For others who had trouble with delivery, at least for Uber Eats, I fixed the issue by editing Bing Maps and Open Street Map. (I’m not sure which one did the trick, but I think it was Bing Maps?)